Education and Occupation

Abstract

We now turn to an examination of the relevance for careers of education and qualifications. In particular we shall be looking at the importance of different types and levels of education, and their relationships to subsequent earnings. The fact that education affects incomes is commonplace, but recent empirical studies have purported to demonstrate that the effect is small or even negligible (e.g. Duncan et al 1968; Jencks, 1973; Psacharopoulos, 1977). We shall show that such arguments are mistaken, and with an adequate conceptualisation of the relation of education to careers, the effect can be seen to be substantial. Our approach will also show that the part-time sector of education, so much neglected in previous research, is in fact of considerable importance in the development of careers.